I know I'm a little of a late comer to this discussion in the end but here is my take on all this. I will say this I will say from a "strategic" ability I put McClellan up there if not equal with Grant as not far off. The reason for this is that McClellan was a strategically sound general in the end...

I agree with many here I'm a Civil War person. While McDowell's plan did fail in the end, this lay more with his subordinates rather than him. He devised a very good plan just in the end it failed simply because most of his subordinates, as well as him, were new to command and things did not get car...